Variation characteristics of gaseous elemental mercury at Nanling mountain background station in Guangdong
GAO Zhi-qiang1,2, LIU Ming2, CHEN Lai-guo2, SUN Jia-ren2, CHEN Duo-hong3, HUANG Xiang-feng4, OU Jie4, LI Jie1, XU Zhen-cheng2
1. Institute of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou 730070, China;
2. Urban Environment and Ecology Research Center, South China Institute of Environmental Science, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Guangzhou 510655, China;
3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Regional Monitoring Air Quality, Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Center, Guangzhou 510308, China;
4. Shaoguan Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center Station, Shaoguan 512026, China
Gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) was continuously monitored at Nanling mountain, using the high-resolution automatic atmospheric mercury vapor analyzer (Tekran 2537B) from June 2012 to May 2013. Annual average concentration of GEM was (2.56±0.93)ng/m3, higher than those reported in global background areas (1.50~1.70ng/m3). The GEM concentration exhibited seasonal variation, with the highest and lowest concentrations in autumn[(3.03±1.08)ng/m3] and spring[(2.30±0.69)ng/m3], respectively. The GEM concentration in the daytime[(2.61±0.06)ng/m3] was slightly higher than night[(2.53±0.07)ng/m3] with a peak value at 17:00. Solar radiation, temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and local sources made certain contributions to the diurnal variation of GEM. Potential source contribution function (PSCF) indicated that GEM of Nanling area mainly came from long-range transport of mercury, especially from Guangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Jiangxi province. The strong coherent distribution between main source regions of GEM and the geographical locations of non-ferrous metal smelting factories, suggesting non-ferrous metal smelting was an important mercury emission source, While local coal-fired emission was also a contributor to the GEM in Nanling.
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